THE TRICKSTER

An Archetype Worth Exploring

Nanabush Giving the Racoon its colours Daphne Odjig, 1919

WHAT IS AN ARCHETYPE ANYWAY?

A Jungian archetype is a thought pattern that finds worldwide parallels, either in cultures or in individuals.

Jung believed that such archetypal images and ideas reside in the unconscious level of the mind of every human being and are inherited from the ancestors of the race. They form the substance of the collective unconscious .
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SOME COMMON ARCHETYPES

The Hero Young Man from the Provinces The Initiates Mentor Mentor - Pupil Relationship The Threshold Guardian Father - Son Conflict Hunting Group of Companions Loyal Retainers Friendly Beast The Shadow The Devil Figure The Evil Figure with Ultimately Good Heart

THE ARCHETYPE OF THE TRICKSTER: THE LORDS OF THE IN-BETWEEN

Is believed to be able to move between the living and the dead (6). Sometimes he is presented as the messenger of gods and other times as the guide of souls, carrying the dead into the underworld or opening the tomb to release them when they must walk among us (6). We constantly distinguish night and day, sacred and profane, clean and dirty, male and female, young and old, living and dead and in every case, Trickster will cross the line and confuse the distinction (7). Trickster is the creative idiot, therefore, the wise fool, the gray-haired baby, the cross-dresser, the speaker of sacred profanities (7).

TRICKSTER AND MORALITY

Moral: Concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour and the goodness or badness of human character. Immoral: Not conforming to accepted standards of morality Amoral: Lacking a moral sense; unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something.

SO

When someones sense of honourable behaviour has left him unable to act, trickster will appear to suggest an amoral action, something right/wrong that will get life going again (7).

How does this apply to Motorcycles and Sweetgrass?

CHARACTERS

Lilian Banojee Maggie Second Virgil Second Dakota Wayne Sam Aandeg John Smith/Taylor/Tanner/Richardson/Johnson/Jones